There is someone out there who gets the same kind of mails from his right-wing dad. He started a right-wing forward web museum.
Myrightwingdad.net
Index of economic freedom
October 27, 2009
Iceland, wasn't that country ranked number five on the 2006 index of economic freedom published by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation?
MacDonalds closes in Iceland as economy shrinks - GhanaBusinessNews
Welcome to America!
October 19 2009.
And still many Americans are against health care reform.
He's in the Army now Wife?s cancer prompts man to enlist - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Free Market Capitalism.
October 14, 2009
"If there are men in this country big enough to own the government of the United States, they are going to own it." Woodrow Wilson
How big the power of the health insurance industry really is, became abundantly clear when the Medicare prescription drug bill passed congress. The bill was actually written by the lobbyists of the insurance companies.
See this CBS 60 minutes documentary from 2007
But not only the influence on congressional level is alarming.
In some states insurance companies have a near-monopoly, which gives them the power to set prices.
The health insurance market in the USA is NOT a Free Market.
According to an article on the Kaiser foundation web site about an AMA (American Medical Association) study from 2006 on mergers in the health insurance industry:
?(?) each of 43 states studied was measured as having a "high" market concentration. North Dakota was among the states with the highest market concentrations, with about 90% of its market controlled by the state's Blue Cross Blue Shield provider (Dow Jones/Baltimore Sun, 4/18). Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama controlled more than 90% of the market in parts of Alabama (Colliver, San Francisco Chronicle, 4/18). AMA said there have been more than 400 health care insurance mergers during the past decade. Health insurers following consolidations have "presumably eliminated duplicative functions [but] they're not passing the savings in personnel and administrative costs on to consumers," Dow Jones/Sun reports. Rate increases are slowing, but they "are higher than ever and growing at a near double-digit pace," Dow Jones/Sun reports. AMA said it raised antitrust issues with DOJ, which it said did not express interest in pursing the matter, Dow Jones/Sun reports (Dow Jones/Baltimore Sun, 4/18).?
See: Mergers Among Health Insurers Limiting Consumers' Choice of Care, Providers, AMA Study Says
It is hard to be a right-wing republican these days.
October 12, 2009
Read: Heckuva Job, Barack.
Wasn't it George Bush who said that? Heckuva job, Brownie?
It's hard to get over it, isn't it?
Michael Steele seems to have a problem too: RNC, DNC feud over Barack Obama's Nobel Prize_Politico
Fortunately there are also other voices in the GOP: GOP's King: Let's Be Smarter
Denmark is the happiest place
October 5, 2009
I am talking about a study done by Leicester University in England in 2008. The CBS documentary gives a very interesting view of life in Denmark (and the United States - read the accompanying article on the CBS web site.) You should also read the comments from Americans on this article. Though it's probably almost all conservatives commenting.
CBSnews - Denmark happiest country
The best country to live in.
October 5, 2009.
A lot of Americans that I talk to, often tell me that the USA is the best country to live in, and that everybody wants to migrate to the USA for that reason.
Well, it is not a bad country to live in, but a bit more humbleness might be justified. Just take a good look at this list.
Yes, the Netherlands takes the 6th spot, the USA is number 13.
Human Development Report
The American Nightmare
October 4, 2009
You had to leave your house because you couldn't make your monthly payment anymore. Where do you go with your family?
Homeless in tent camp
Here we go again
October 1, 2009.
Today my uncle sent me another weird e-mail about the health care reform bill that will pass congress before the end of this year. He is scared to death, because he believes what it says.
I already sent him the links to the websites of politifact and factcheck.org, but I am afraid that it won't help.
Why can?t these people stop scaring seniors?
Here is the e-mail; it is unbelievable:
Senior Death Warrants...
Actress Natasha Richardson died after falling, while skiing in Canada . It took eight hours to drive her to a hospital. If Canada had our healthcare she might be alive today. In the United States , we have medical evacuation helicopters that would have transported her to a hospital within 30 minutes.
In England, citizens over 59 cannot receive heart repairs, stents or coronary bypass surgery because it's too expensive and not warranted, in the eyes of the government... given the age of the patients.
Obama wants to have a healthcare system just like Canada 's and England 's.
If Obama's plans in other areas don't frighten you, this should.
Please do not let Obama sign such legislation which will be a Senior Death Warrant for all but the wealthy. Everybody that is on my mailing list is either a senior citizen, is getting close or knows somebody that is.
Most of you know by now that the Senate version (at least) of the "Stimulus Bill" included provisions for extensive rationing of health care for senior citizens. The author of this part of the bill, former senator and tax evader, Tom Daschle was credited by Bloomberg with the following statement:
Daschle says, "Health-care reform will not be pain free. Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age, instead of treating them."
If this does not sufficiently raise your ire, just remember that our esteemed Senators and Congressmen have their own health care plan that is first dollar paid, or very low co-pay, which they are guaranteed for the remainder of their lives, and will not subject to this new law, if it passes.
Please use the power of the Internet to get this message out. Talk it up at the grassroots level. We have an election coming up in one year and five months. And we have the ability to address and reverse the dangerous direction the Obama administration and his allies have begun... and in the interim, we can make their lives miserable. Lets do this!
If you disagree, do nothing.
Here are some of the sites that debunk this misinformation
factcheck.org
snopes.com
trishatorrey.com - senior-death-warrant-should-be-put-to-death-itself
Americana
Hysteria in Peoria.
Maybe we'd better print our baby pictures at home.
Link:PhoenixNewsTimes
Not that bad. Actually not bad at all! (2)
September 25th
According to Gallup (Sept 23th) more Americans have a favorable view of the Republican Party. The approval rate went up from 34% to 40%. But the Democratic Party is still leading; 51% of the Americans have a favorable view of the Democratic Party.
Link:Gallup.com
Not that bad. Actually not bad at all!
September 24th, 2009.
"Public Wary of Obama on War and Health"
The headline spells trouble for Obama, but in the article we read that his approval rate is 56%.
And that is very good for a president who has to deal with an economic crisis (which he inherited), and an unemployment rate of almost 10%.
The article also reports: "More Americans are starting to credit his stimulus package with having helped to revive the economy. And Mr. Obama retains a decided advantage with the American public over Republicans on prominent issues, starting with health care"
Link: New York Times-In Poll, Public Wary of Obama on War and Health
Sick
September 20, 2009.
In the Journal Sentinel a letter from somebody who states that illegal Aliens ARE covered: if they go to the emergency room they will get help.
The reader in question writes that they are actually covered because nobody verifies a persons citizenship.
Another reader is against helping those people because it drives up the costs of health care.
As far as I know, everybody, insured or not insured is billed. The bill of the people who have no insurance is even bigger.
That is because an insurance company doesn't allow all the costs that are charged by the hospital.
If you are not insured you pay for everything that you are charged for.
But apart from that. Everyone who asks for help because he or she is sick or injured should get help.
That is what a hospital is for.
Lots of people who are "pro life" and against euthanasia, or are even against an opportunity for patients to ask advice about end of life options, don't have any problem with euthanizing people who have no insurance. They simply recommend to refuse the uninsured health care when they need it.
These people also often call themselves christian.
Hate
September 12, 2009
"Several people held up preprinted signs saying, ?Bury Obama Care with Kennedy,? a reference to the Massachusetts senator whose body passed by the Capitol two weeks earlier to be memorialized."
See: Thousands Rally in Capital to Protest Big Government_New York Times
Holland on the Hudson.
I almost forgot! Last week it was 400 years ago that the Dutch ship the Half Moon reached the shores of what is now called New York.
The Dutch called it New Amsterdam. Festivities and more in New York.
Link: NY 400
Support for Obama up, after health care speech.
According to the latest CBS poll: See: CBS Poll on health care
Stimulus (2)
Council of Economic Advisers reports that the stimulus is a succes.
Links:
-The report in PDF format
-Stimulus: Big Impact on GDP, 1 Million Jobs Created or Saved, White House Report Says-Washington Post
The Stimulus Plan.
September 8, 2009.
Why did we need a stimulus plan in the USA?
The answer is actually quite simple. Due to the mortgage crisis, the collapse of the financial market and the housing market, (many homeowners lost their house), consumer and business spending decreased fast. The crisis rapidly spread to the rest of the world, which led to a decline in U.S. exports.
The government was the only remaining party that could increase spending. And spending definitely had to go up.
If spending falls, total demand for products and services will fall, which ultimately leads to a multiple decline of gross domestic product.
The decline in gross domestic product will lead to an increase in unemployment.
Deficit spending in a recession is necessary to save our present AND our future.
If the economy is in a recession, increased government spending will often lead to a larger budget deficit.
That is why economists sometimes speak of deficit spending. It is considered as an often necessary evil. The budget deficit is not just caused by a rise in government spending; because of the fall in Gross Domestic Product, tax revenues will fall too.
Economic growth leads to a bigger tax revenue. Economic shrink leads to less tax revenue, while the government has to spend more money on unemployment benefits, programs like medicaid (a lot of people lose their insurance because they lose their job) and stimulus programs.
The government will have to borrow the extra money, and the public debt will rise.
Many conservatives want us to believe that this will lead to a future tragedy, in which our children and grandchildren will have to pay for the sins of their parents and grandparents. But this is not true. It is not common sense, it is common nonsense.
The government is usually capable of consolidating the debt without running into a financing problem. Once the economy is growing again, tax revenues will rise, and government spending will fall. The government does not have to spend stimulus money anymore and the number of unemployment claims will diminish.
This, and the economic growth itself of course, leads to a smaller debt as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product.
A moderate inflation rate of for instance 2 or 3% helps too.
The doctrine of the Balanced Budget
At the moment we have a 787 billion stimulus package.
The stimulus effect of this plan would be much bigger, if the individual states were not cutting spending and raising taxes, which is what they are doing right now. Cutting spending and raising taxes is exactly the opposite of what they should be doing.
The individual states have to deal with a substantial rise in the budget deficit, caused by the recession. As described above, that doesn?t have to be such a bad thing. The problem here is not the deficit itself but the doctrine of the Balanced Budget.
It is the requirement of a balanced budget that forces them to cut spending and raise taxes.
In all states, except Vermont, a balanced government budget is a legal requirement. In many states it is even laid down in the constitution.
The balanced budget doctrine forces the states to implement a pro-cyclical policy, the exact opposite of a stimulus. It is like giving a patient that needs an anti-depressant, a pro-depressant.
It also makes it very easy for the republicans to criticize democratic governors. The republicans are the biggest supporters of a balanced budget, but at the moment they criticize democratic governors for raising taxes. It also makes it easy for them to complain about bad performance of public services, and ineffective government in general. The spending cuts on government services they propose make it impossible for a lot of government institutions to do a good job.
All in all, however we see that on a national level spending has not fallen and the latest economic data show that the stimulus has lead to the creation of many jobs.
And fortunately we do not have to deal with a republican administration. A republican administration would probably have led us into the second Great Depression. Not only in the USA, but also in Europe and the rest of the world.
Links: Conservative economists back stimulus plan - Chicago Tribune
Stimulus: Big Impact on GDP, 1 Million Jobs Created or Saved, White House Report Says-Washington Post
States Cut Back and Layoffs Hit Even Recipients of Stimulus Aid
August
september 7, 2009
The Guns of August_New York Times
Labor day at the zoo
Picture: Francisco. Zoo: Milwaukee Zoo. See the web site: Milwaukee Zoo Web Site
Partisan Politics.
September 4, 2009.
In the media, the republicans hammer the Obama administration on the new Jobs report.
In TIME magazine:
"In fact, Vice President Biden said that he believes the Administration has ?met or exceeded' their goal to create or save 600,000 jobs in the past 100 days. Today's unemployment report proves that this Administration is ignoring reality. The unemployment rate jumped to 9.7 percent. More than 216,000 Americans lost their jobs in the month of August alone. That means more than 3 million Americans have lost their jobs since the president took office. The president's economic experiment simply isn't working, and Americans shouldn't expect his government-run health care experiment to work, either," Steele said in a statement."
TIME (The Page)
"More than 261.000 Americans lost their job in the month of August alone".
What Steel does not tell is that in January 741,000 Americans lost their job.
The Obama administration saved the economy from the abyss. Actually the recession is over, and has not changed into a great depression. That unemployment is still high was to be expected. Every reasonable thinking economist knows that unemployment is often lagging behind.
At the beginning of a recession unemployment is still low while the economy is already shrinking.
At the end of a recession when the economy is recovering the unemployment is often high.
Employers are hesitant to hire new workers, because the future is uncertain.
It is true that the high unemployment rate (at the moment 9.7%), probably will have a negative effect on consumer spending and the housing market. In that respect the unemployment rate could be considered as a leading indicator and not as a lagging one.
And even when the number of jobs will start growing again, the unemployment rate will still rise in the beginning, because of population growth.
"What's the matter with these people? Can't they take a week off?
Just take a week off. It's a funeral. Take a week off from politics."
Chris Matthews on hardball about Limbaugh and his friends who keep attacking Senator Kennedy after he died.
The decline of the conservative movement.
The right-wing fringe is doing its best to accomplish a complete melt-down of the conservative movement, if not the Republican Party.
Palin is talking about death panels (oh well... what does she know), Limbaugh calls the health care reform plans fascist and says that Nazism in the thirties also started with the nationalization of health care.
Glenn Beck calls Obama a racist who hates white people.
There is only one word for all this: nuts.
They can't get over it that the majority of the people has voted for Obama in the last presidential election. Day after day, they are getting more worked up.
It is also getting pretty weird now and then. Gun nuts are carrying assault rifles at presidential town hall meetings, Limbaugh is encouraging his followers to disturb Town Hall meetings, even if they are a minority, and as if that is not enough he is attacking Edward Kennedy in the week that the Senator dies of a brain tumor.
The only positive thing about all this is, that these guys are digging their own grave.
Listen for instance to this:
Click here
There are lots of people who do not understand all the insanity, among them Chris Matthews:
Bull.
August 27th, 2009
In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel of August 22nd another letter from a reader who ?worries? about his Grandma who ?has been told by her doctor that she needs a pacemaker and the Government Health Board has decided that she is too old and she should just take a pain pill (Pages 253, 425 and 430).?
The pages in the letter refer to the Health Care Bill HR3200.
Now, I always check the sources. So I looked up page 253, 425 and 430. It says nothing about ?pain pills?.
It says nothing about mandatory counseling. It says nothing about a mandatory consultation.
What it does say, among other things, is that you can consult a doctor, on a voluntary basis, to ask advice about different end of life options before you yourself are going to make any decisions. The insurance will pay for that consultation.
What is so bad about that?.
There are more bogus assertions in the letter accompanied by page numbers. Another guy who received an email, copied the content, and sent it to the local newspaper without checking the HR3200 bill himself?
Or is it just another guy who deliberately tries to deceive the reader?
Everybody can find out what is really in the bill. It is on the internet and you can download it as a pdf file.
Click here: health care bill
Glenn Beck....
August 23, 2009.
What Glenn Beck really thinks of health care, but forgot when he started working for FOX.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Glenn Beck's Operation | ||||
| ||||
God
21-Aug-2009
Luckily there are also religious people who have a more nuanced vision.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Clergy listen to webcast on health care reform package
Cal
20-Aug-2009 12:10 AM
Just read a column written by Cal Thomas
According to this Great Philosopher there is something terribly wrong with you, if you believe in the theory of evolution.
If you believe in evolution, you think that health care should be rationed.
How does Mr. Thomas come to this conclusion?
These are literally his words:
"Why spend lots of money to improve ? or save ? the life of someone who evolved from slime and has no special significance other than the ?accident? of becoming human?"
I am not making this up. I mean, this is NOT FOX News Channel.
See for yourself at your own risk:
Column
Just a reminder.
August 19, 2009
How did the last big compromise with the republicans work out?
The republicans wanted to add a lot of amendments to the stimulus bill.
They managed to negotiate 300 billion in tax cuts. Then they voted against the bill. Only three republicans voted for.
There is a big chance that they will show the same kind of "bipartisanship" with the health care bill.
A victory for hooligans and liars
august 16, 2009
Sebelius: Public insurance plan not essential.
public option dropped? - see: Washington Post
Britons angry about GOP attacks on their National Health care
august 16, 2009
And they are right.
Britons rally to defend their healthcare system, say U.S. attacks aren't cricket - Los Angeles Times
Well at least that's a good thing caused by the great recession
August 14, 2009
Downward trend in sales of bottled water
Washington Post
Anti-democratic movement is trying to gain momentum.
August 10, 2009
The fear mongering by the radio talk show hosts and desperate politicians like Sarah Palin seems to have succes. Angry crowds (not with haystacks, and guns, yet...) disrupt town hall meetings and make it impossible for chosen members of congress to speak.
"There is more anger in America today than at any time I can remember," Arlen Specter said today according to an Associated Press article. (Specter is a "moderate" and 79 years old.)
That it is not just about angriness, but also about hate and hate groups was underlined today by the swastika that was painted over the name of a black member of congress on a company sign.
This is also about the same kind of people that shouted "Kill him!" (Obama), during election meetings, after Palin told the public that Obama was "palling around" with terrorists.
These people want to remove Obama from office, one way or another.
Common Ignorance.
August 4, 2009
It was at a birthday party that an angry uncle told us that the Health Care Bill contains an article that proposes mandated government counseling for senior citizens every five year to evaluate "end-of life-options". First thing that comes to mind: another urban legend. Or should we say: another lie from republican wing nuts? Or, is it a lie that deliberately has been brought into the media by conservative organizations? Anyway, you must be pretty naive, if you believe this nonsense. Kathy Banaszak is a community columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
She brings the lie in the form of a statement made by "One elderly gentleman" at a town hall meeting.
If people say that you are a liar you can always tell them that the only thing you did was citing an "older gentleman".
This lie has already been debunked some time ago. But that makes no difference for most right wingers.
It doesn't matter if it is true or not. The end justifies the means. We want to break Obama.
There is an e-mail going around that is packed with false statements.
If you want to see how much crap some people can put together in a short e-mail go to: www.ar15.com
If you really want to know the truth, check all the assertions in the health bill yourself:
health care bill
If you need some help, go to:
politifact
Factcheck is another independent organization that helps against the spread of nonsense.
factcheck.org
How low can you go? (2)
May 23, 2009
As I wrote before: the GOP is bubbling with exciting new ideas.
Take a look at this one.
go to politico.com
Yahoo and FOX NEWS
May 11th, 2009
Because my internet provider was SBC (now taken over by AT&T), my homepage is Yahoo.
It occurred to me that when I go to the political news on video, most of the news clips come from FOX NEWS.
As every informed reader knows, this is a highly biased news channel. To be more specific: it is an ultra-conservative right-wing news channel.
I mean: Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Bill O?Reilly, Glenn Beck, Karl Rove, and Dick Cheney. Come on! This is not the main stream. These are all representatives of the far right in the American political landscape. A soon to be extinct political species.
And still?. Of the first nine video clips on my screen (5/11/09) SEVEN come from FOX NEWS. Did Rupert Murdoch buy AT&T?
Top-spin
April 3, 2009
On the site Politico.com Glenn Trush writes down one of his breaking insights, under the headline: ?Dems tank in weekly poll.?
Reading the article we learn that ?The weekly Kos/Research2000 poll has some bad news for all Dems not named Obama.?
What has this guy been smoking?
See: Politico
How about this one?
March 15, 2009.
?We cannot attract and retain the best and the brightest talent to lead and staff the A.I.G. businesses ? which are now being operated principally on behalf of American taxpayers ? if employees believe their compensation is subject to continued and arbitrary adjustment by the U.S. Treasury,?
Edward M. Liddy, the government-appointed chairman of A.I.G. after news came out that AIG CEO's will get 165 million dollars in bonuses
see: New York Times
A common misunderstanding about the federal deficit.
January 31, 2009.
A lot of objections against a high federal deficit are based on a comparison of the federal deficit to the deficit of an average American family. This doesn?t make sense.
About three quarters of the treasury securities are in the hands of the American government itself and the American public. We can say that we owe about three quarters of the debt to ourselves. The rest is in foreign hands.
One can?t say that about a mortgage debt of an average family. The family owes this debt to an external party, in the case of a mortgage, a bank.
And even IF the government debt were kind of the same as a family debt or a company debt, which it is not, the objections still don?t make sense.
If families (or companies) would have to meet the requirements of a balanced budget, like the government, or even the requirements as they are now with the ?huge? deficit, most of the families would not be able to own a house or a car. The companies would not be able to do the investments that are now considered necessary.
Now that the American federal deficit is rising because of the bail out programs and the stimulus package the example of an average family that owes money is often used to explain the consequences of the federal debt.
In an interview with Michele Norris, who can?t stop stressing the fact that the Government deficit is going to be one TRILLION, one TRILLION, One TRILLION dollars , economic reporter John Idstie makes this mistake of seeing no essential difference between the federal debt and the debt of an average American family.
Listen to ?All things considered of January 8th 2009 on National Public Radio: NPR Day to day
A light at the end of the tunnel.
January 14, 2009It looks as if the credit market is recovering. The TED spread is down to 0.97.
The GOP is bubbling with exciting new ideas. (2)
December 13, 2008
"What I'm saying to you is yes, I have found a flaw. I don't know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact...A flaw in the model that I perceived is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works, so to speak."
Alan Greenspan, congressional hearing on the "actions and inaction of federal regulators" 10/23/08
Even the conservative economist Alan Greenspan doesn?t believe anymore in a raw ?free-market? capitalism.
But many republicans, who are not handicapped by any economic knowledge, still believe that an unfettered market can be the only regulating mechanism in the economy.
Government is not the solution, it is the problem. The market ?is always right?. Most republicans are also sworn opponents of the unions, because, according to their ideology, the unions (and government) are frustrating the benign workings of the free market.
So they demanded from the United Auto Workers that they would agree to steep wage cuts to bring their wages into line with the wages of the workers in the Japanese car industry.
I heard a reporter on National Public Radio asking a senate republican if they wanted to deal a blow to the unions. The answer was no. The problem is, according to this patriotic republican, that they do not believe in a bailout in this form. A bailout is not a guarantee for a survival of the Big Three.
They refuse to understand that the last thing that the nation is waiting for is the destruction of millions of jobs while the economy is in a severe recession. They don?t seem to understand that because of this misplaced attitude the economic downturn could change into a severe depression. Or maybe they don?t care, because the people that will get hit are losers anyway, and they themselves don?t belong to that group.
They try to put the blame on the unions, ignoring the fact that the wages make up only 10 percent of the production costs, and the fact that the United Auto Workers already made important concessions...
And all the time they refer to the bailout of the financial industry, ignoring the fact that the so-called bailout of the auto industry is nothing more than a loan, not a gift, and only a small fraction of the real bailout that we see happening in the financial sector.
see also the LA TIMES
The republican party is bubbling with exciting new ideas.
november 12, 2008
Take for instance Mrs. Michele Bachmann, who believes that the media should probe congress for anti-Americanism.
Link: http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/10/rep_michele_bachmann_tells_chr.html
Also see: youtube
At the end of the race it always gets ugly.
October 24, 2008.
Two tactics used by the republicans are the effort to disenfranchise as many voters as they can, because it is a fact that that will hurt the Democrats the most, and the use of so-called ?robo-calls?.
Voters in ten swing states were called and told that Obama ?has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers (? )?
The robocalls are paid for by the Republican National Committee and McCain-Palin 2008.
In Wisconsin Attorney General Van Hollen sued the state Government Accountability Board demanding that it must crosscheck voter names with driver?s license records for some voters who registered to vote or changed their addresses since Jan. 1, 2006. (Journal Sentinel September 12, 2008).
This means that hundreds of thousands of voter records have to be checked. Van Hollen is a co-chair of McCains presidential campaign.
The voters names and birth dates have to match with drivers licences or another ID, or social security records.
The voters that fail the checks would have to provide proof of residence on the day of voting. Today, the 24th the case was tossed by the county judge.
Why are the republicans so fanatic in pursuing voter fraud? There is hardly any fraud. It is a way to discourage voters to vote. Voter turnout has grown and most new voters are poor. Most poor people vote democrat.
Long lines at the voting boots help discouraging voters. And also obliging voters to show an ID. If that doesn't work, sending ?poll watchers? helps to intimidate voters. Voting has to be made as difficult as possible.
Last week the U.S. Supreme court overruled an Ohio District Courts decision which was in favor of the Republicans.
Especially in the crucial swing states the GOP is trying to make it harder to vote.
For the republicans politics is the continuation of war by other means.
How low can you go?
October 12, 2008.
A column worth reading; especially for people who are planning to vote republican.
The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama
By FRANK RICH
Published: October 12, 2008
The McCain campaign has crossed the line between tough negative campaigning and inciting vigilantism, and each day the mob howls louder.
Link: New York Times: The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama
See also New York Times: Congressman Rebukes McCain for Recent Rallies
The most beautiful thing about our economic system is that bad decisions are punished in the marketplace.(2)
October 6, 2008.
Richard Fuld, CEO of Lehman Brothers earned almost half a billion dollars since 2000.
During a congressional hearing today it also was revealed that on Sept. 11, Lehman planned to pay 18 million dollars to two CEO's who were terminated and 5 million to another executive who left the company. That was four days before the bankruptcy.
A picture tells more than a thousand words.
October 5, 2008
This graph comes from Larry M. Bartels new book: Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age
I copied it from Dani Rodriks Weblog
It shows that during democratic presidencies in the period from 1948 until 2005 the average economic growth is higher. Also visible is the fact that when republican presidents are in charge the richest people gain a lot more in income than the poorest people.
When a democratic president is in power the lower income groups benefit relatively more than the higher income groups.
And all income groups gain more, when a democrat is in charge, because the average annual economic growth is higher.
Sarah Palin unscripted. October 4, 2008.
How can someone like that become a mayor and governor? Now she is running for the vice-presidency.
Watch this clip on youtube.
The best of Sarah Palin
The vice-presidential debate, or the difference between a hockey mom and a parrot.
October 3, 2008Yesterday I watched the vice-presidential debate. This morning I read some comments in the newspaper and on the web. "No losers. Two winners: Palin and Biden." According to a lot of commentators Palin had proved that she can stand "toe to toe" with Joe Biden.
I guess I saw another debate. What I saw was a thoroughly scripted performance of Sarah Palin. She was not really debating, most of the time. She ignored some questions of the moderator, and in one case she did not even hear the question. She was delivering a speech written by her campaign advisors. The only thing she proved was that she could pronounce texts written by others and that she can finish a sentence. And she looks very cute and charming. I bet she would do very well at a beauty contest, if she were twenty years younger.
Blind faith.
September 27, 2008.
"The most beautiful thing about our economic system is that bad decisions are punished in the marketplace." Jonah Goldberg, conservative columnist 9-19-2008.
In a very short period of time we have seen the demise of several big investment banks in Wall Street leading to big losses for people with retirement funds in the form of 401K's, unemployment for workers who had nothing to do with the decisions on Wall Street, and tax payers who will have to pay up to avert an economic crisis comparable to the Great Depression.
This is all about privatizing profits and socializing losses, characteristic for the last three decades. A period, during which, the republicans were in power most of the time.
Even when bad decisions are punished in the market place, it is not the decision makers that are suffering. In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel of Friday September 26, an Associated Press article about CEO's, who were playing a leading role in causing the financial crisis. These CEO's already left the stage a while ago, cashing millions of dollars in severance packages. Stanley O'Neal (Merrill Lynch) received 66 million dollars, Ken Thompson (Wachovia) $ 5 million and Chuck Prince (Citigroup) $16 million.
And what about the guys that made the risky bets and got away with the profits? Did they get punished? Bad decisions are punished in the market place? Yeah right!
Democracy in America
April 18, 2008.
It was not only the Medicare Bill that was written by lawyers from K Street.
In 2000 the Commodity Futures Modernization Act passed congress, while most members were on Christmass recess. Nobody knew what was in it exept the lawyers of the investment banks on Wall Street who were the writers of the bill. The bill was pushed through congres by Phil Gramm, who is now the chief economic advisor of John McCain.
Since then the shadow market of complex derivatives which are now causing all the turmoil in the financial markets is completely deregulated.
Source: Fresh Air (NPR) (April 3, 2008) Michael Greenberger interviewed by Terry Gross. If you want to listen to the interview go to: Fresh Air